PGP Enhancement to Java

In this project, we investigated diierent possible approaches for Java-capable web browsers to provide exible access control to applets, and then we designed, implemented, and tested our approach. Our approach uses PGP to do authentication and to provide privacy. We modify the class loader to use PGP to authenticate (and decrypt) a signed (and encrypted) applet. The security manager is also modiied to use the signature of a signed applet and the originating host, path, and name of the applet to make authorization decision. The security manager consults the user's access control policy which is speciied as a list of properties in the user's properties le. Since our approach is independent of machine and web browser, it can be ported to diierent platforms and browsers. It is compatible with existing web servers, web pages, and web browsers. Only a few modiications to web servers, web pages, and web browsers are required to use. The time and space overhead is low. It is simple to use. The existing public key infrastructure provided by PGP can be utilized.